Finally I have a half decent photo of Castle Mountain (below) about half way between Banff & Lake Louise.
Moraine Lake
Words can't even come close to describing this lake. It's Moraine Lake which is near Lake Louise. Lake Louise gets hammered by tourists, as does this one, but not nearly as much. Lake Louise is world renowned because of the tourist photos taken with the Fairmont Hotel. Having been to both now, I would have to say that Moraine is far better. It's a much deeper blue & the mountains surrounding the lake are far more interesting.
This is unlikely to be the only time we visit this magical place.
Golden Mantle Ground Squirrel
Our first wildlife for the trip. We received a booklet at the entry to Banff National Park and it has a couple of pages of animals seen in the park. I'm are trying to take a photo of each one. We already have the elk and white tailed deer.
This little guy was hanging around where the tourist traffic was very busy. He was very bold, but also very fast. Notice the orange black & white stripes on his back. Almost chipmunk colouration.
Yoho National Park
After we had visited Moraine Lake, we headed into Yoho National Park that borders Banff National Park. The boundary of the two National parks is also the boundary for Alberta & British Columbia (B.C.).
Takakkaw Falls is near the little railway town of Field.
The water fall is fed by the Daly Glacier & has a vertical drop of 254m making it Canada's second highest falls. Notice the kicker at the top of the falls. The water drops onto a ledge just below top of the falls & shoots outward.
It is impossible for a photo to show how impressive & imposing these falls really are. You will notice me pictured at the bottom of the falls (above). It gives an idea of how tall these falls are. The volume of water coming from the glacial melt about is awe inspiring & the roar of the water crashing on the rocks below is just as impressive.
Kerri liked the look of this building for some reason. I managed to point out why it wouldn't be the best place to stay overnight. This could be a problem when staying in Field. The Canadian Pacific Railroad runs 24-7 and the noise from the trains in Banff at all hours was annoying enough and the trains run quite a far from the hotels. I don't know what the alternative is in Yoho, but I'm sure we'll work it out.
Field's a funny little place that is there because of the railway. Aside from that, it's ideally placed if you want to explore the pick of Yoho National Park. It's less than 20kms from four gems including the two waterfalls (I've already mentioned), Natural Bridge and Emerald Lake. Just behind Mount Stephen in picture is Cathedral Mountain.
Natural Bridge
I'm sure this isn't the only Natural Bridge in the world. I know of 2 in Western Australia and one in South East Queensland for a start.
This one straddles the mighty Kicking Horse River. The impressive part of this feature is the amount of water flowing through this point. The water from Tekakkaw falls flows through this point and joins the Kicking Horse River just upstream of here.
Emerald Lake
This lake is beautiful like the couple in Banff National Park, but instead of the turquoise in Alberta, this one is an emerald green colour (hence the name).
Unfortunately, like it's Albertan counterparts, you need to get there early before the tourist buses get there. The breeze is also a factor. You get some fantastic photos with the mountains reflected in the water. As soon as even a mild breeze kicks in, the reflection goes. Too much sun tends to wash out the photos as well. I'm kind of looking forward to the winter months when the international tourists aren't swarming over these places.
Columbia Valley.
Continuing our exploration, we headed West along the Trans-Canada Highway roughly following the Kicking Horse River. It was no where nearly as exciting as the journey on the Rocky Mountaineer. The road takes a much higher route & you only see fleeting glimpses of the river. When we reached Golden (about 60kms from Field) we turned to the south through the Columbia Valley to Radium Hot Springs 100kms south. It's mainly cattle and timber country & although there's a mountain range on both sides, it just didn't cut it compared to the mountain ranges on the border. The only decent point of interest was this shot with the sun highlighting the trees on the edge of the river in the Columbia Valley.
The Rocky Mountains have a whole bunch of hot springs around the place, including Banff & Jasper. Apparently the Radium Hot springs are the hottest of the lot. It just looked like a couple of 25m swimming pools to me. (Hanmer Springs in NZ were much nicer.) I can see the attraction in the middle of winter, but on a 30+ degree day the middle of summer?
The photo below is a strange wood carver's shop in the middle of the township. Not much else to mention otherwise. It's a convenient gateway to Kootenay NP.
Olive Lake is only about 10kms inside the Kootenay National Park. It isn't hard to work out where the name comes from.
The colour of the lake is definitely an olive green & it comes from a mixture of the glacial turquoise & the brown of the rotting timber in the water (I think). Very pretty spot and there were only two other people when we were there.
Heading back toward Banff (north east) from Radium Springs & Olive lake, you drive over quite an interesting mountain pass & come to the Kootenay Valley Viewpoint. The rest of the trip isn't that interesting, but I imagine the fishermen think it's paradise with a bunch of perfect trout streams.
Closer to Banff is Hector's Gorge (below). There are a few other points of interest that we'll probably check out in the future, but it was about 7pm by this point & we just wanted to stop driving. We covered about 550kms for the day.
